Spirograph
About
From Wikipedia "Spirograph is a geometric drawing device that produces mathematical roulette curves of the variety technically known as hypotrochoids and epitrochoids." If you have no idea what that means you are not alone.
Suffice to say, it's a kid's toy that helps you draw fancy geometric shapes.
Thoughts
Tim:
3/5
I had mentioned one day to Laura that I never had one of these as a kid. So guess what I got for my birthday? It is fun for a bit but a lot more finicky than I expected. Difficult to keep the inner wheel inside and not have it just slip out. Also an incredibly bad design choice for the box size to just barely not fit a half size of standard paper.
Laura:
3/5, it was fun, and I'd try it again but I'm not about to buy a bunch of paper for it.
I had a travel Spirograph as a kid, and having a control outer piece that doesn't move really helps the spirograph artist out! Trying the proper spirograph without any tape/putty/etc required a lot of patience and steadiness, neither of those I have. I still liked it, though, and drew two pieces. I would try again if I could tape the outer piece to the table/paper and just focus on the inner piece. It was a fun trip down memory lane. I kind of don't feel like any rating is appropriate, because you're just drawing loops, and it was fine. But, I keep rating things, so here you go.
Trivia
- The well known toy version was developed by British engineer Denys Fisher and first sold in 1965.
- See Also Cycloid Drawing Machine.
- There is a "professional" version of this called "Wild Gears" with a starter set at $50.
5-18-2021